Property Ownership

The envirowars are coming! They will be fought in far away places by appointed bureaucrats and elected officials who feel that a minimalist world is better for all. And they are being fought today in communities out west. It seems logical that if mankind lived more frugally, fewer resources need to be used. And if mankind would just settle for a "reasonable" existence, the environment would prosper to the benefit of plants, animals, and mankind as well.

One of the envirowar's fronts is in the state trenches of the United States. Here enviro-extremists have used zoning and sweeping land use regulations to minimize property owner's rights to use their land. Zoning was first proposed as a way to control growth and to manage development. It was sold as a way for communities to design the fabric of their neighborhood by keeping unwanted businesses and "ugly" housing out. Zoning has failed to deliver. One of zoning's most prestigious legacies is the infamous "commute." This is the unintended result of creating bedroom communities miles from "workplace" cities.

Zoning also created slums as it was used to keep the poor and minorities in one place. In fact desegregation assured a legacy of zoned slums by encouraging middle class blacks to run from their dysfunctional communities. Today that continues with political demonizing of the return of minority and white tax payers by labeling it "gentrification."

Zoning recently took a shot across the bow from property owners in Oregon, of all places. There a populous initiative granting property owner rights gained over 60% voter approval. Measure 37 attempts to roll back government overreach of restricting private property owner's rights to use their land. The result is simple. When someone acquires land it has restrictions attached and the purchaser knows these restrictions and must adhere to them. But when government changes land use policy and changes zoning, it must pay for loss of land use to each owner. Breathtaking.

Neil Pierce, by many considered one of America's pulse takers, writes that this vote might bring back the "Sage Brush Rebellion" that fizzled during the Reagan administration. Since then a few states, notably Oregon and Washington, have spearheaded the assault on property ownership rights. In Washington, recent King County Council resolutions, and city and state environmental actions demanding that up to 65% of all rural property be restored to it's natural state, goes further than any in the United States. Enviro-extremists cut their teeth on these types of property taking policies. And it is their mission to bring these policies to the rest of America.